


Misplaced

by spaceorphan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 02:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17633996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceorphan/pseuds/spaceorphan
Summary: After MJ visits Peter for his birthday and gets him in trouble with Tony Stark -- they're sent on a mission to find one of Howard Stark's old journals.  The mission leads them on a crazy chase, which includes traveling around the country, tracking down various Avengers, and seeking out the current hiding place of Captain America.  Along the way, they learn that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship.





	Misplaced

**Author's Note:**

> Semi-canon compliant, taking place after Homecoming but before Infinity War. However - it's not a part of the strict timeline. I'll add additional character tags as they appear. 
> 
> Thanks again to Snarkyhag for being a wonderful beta :)

“What do you mean you don’t have the newest Adichie?” MJ stood at the counter, tapping her nails lightly while she waited for the new page - a college-aged dude name Jeff - to look over the computer again.  

“I don’t know who or what Adichie even is,” Jeff said.  Clearly, he didn’t. MJ noticed him typing and retyping the name into the computer, searching for a correct spelling.  “Aren’t they some pop artist?” 

_What_? Oh.  “You’re thinking of Avicii, and no.” MJ had a lot of faith in the library staff, but this new guy was testing her patience.  “It’s Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, do I have to spell it for you?” Yes, she did.

“Yeah, we don’t have that,” Jeff said. 

“It came out last Tuesday,” MJ said to him, trying to get a glance at the computer screen.  Jeff pulled it away from her. “Usually Rebecca puts new feminist stuff on hold for me.” 

Jeff winced at the word feminist but tried to recover. “Who’s Rebecca?” 

“The head librarian?” MJ said.  Clearly, she needed to speak to whoever hired this guy.  “Your boss?” 

“Oh…”

“Forget it, I’ll just grab  Handmaid’s Tale again.”  

Recognition crossed Jeff’s face. “I know that one!” 

_ Good for you, would you like me to give you a standing ovation? _  She bit her tongue, though it was hard.  

“Prepping for the new season?” Suddenly, Jeff was more interested in talking to her for some reason.  

“My family doesn’t own a TV,” MJ said.   

“What?” 

“My parents are nobel prize winning PhDs on the international space station currently engaged in a mostly-diplomatic conversation with the Kree and the Skrulls -- those are alien races, who want to blow up the Earth to make way for an intergalactic highway,” MJ said.  “And they said TV rots my brain.” 

Jeff’s jaw slowly dropped.  “Seriously?” 

“No, dumbass - but apparently, you’ll believe anything.”  MJ grinned and walked away. 

“Mr. Stark took you to an AC/DC concert? That’s so cool! I’m totally jealous.”  A voice caught her attention. Sure enough, there was Ned Leeds sitting at one of the computer terminals, talking to the only person he ever really talked to...  Peter Parker. The decision to crash the conversation was easy. 

“Hey losers,” MJ said. 

Ned nearly jumped out of his seat as MJ came up behind him.  “MJ, I didn’t even hear you!”

“Most people don’t,” she said with a shrug.  

Over Ned’s shoulder, Peter’s face lit up, a large, dumb grin on his face. It sorta made her smile, too. 

“MJ, hey,” his voice squeaked more than usual over the rocky computer connection.  He was happy to see her. Probably wasn’t her specifically though. She doubted he was doing a whole lot of interacting face to face for Tony Stark’s “internship”.  “How’s your summer?”

“Fine,” she said.  Her life was dull at the moment, no need to expand on that.  “How’s the internship? Not crawling up the wall due to boredom are you?” 

Peter’s dopey grin faltered. “What, no…”  Yeah, you’re a bad at secrets, Peter Parker. “I’ve been learning all sorts of things like--  what’s that?” Something off screen had his attention. “But I’m.. .Fine. Sorry guys, I gotta go.  We’ll talk next week, Ned, promise.” 

They said goodbye, and Peter’s head disappeared from the screen.  Ned sat back in his chair, resigned.

“What, you miss him or something?” she teased, elbowing him in the shoulder.  

Ned nodded.  “It’s been a few weeks, but, uh, it’s kinda weird when the person you spend all your time with isn’t there anymore, you know?” 

She did know, more than she cared to let on.  She missed him, too. Not that she would admit it to anyone  but Peter being around made things a lot more interesting. 

“It’s his birthday in two weeks,” Ned said, somewhat out of nowhere.  

“Yeah?” She knew that but leaned against the table, interested.  

“We were going to take a road trip up to Maine when he got his license,” Ned said.  “And then go camping up in Canada or something.”

“That’s so lame…” 

Ned didn’t banter back, only frowned.  

“Hey, I have my license.  Why don’t we go seem him?” she offered.  

“We can’t just show up at a Tony Stark facility?” 

“Why not?” 

“Because…” Ned thought really hard about it.  “I don’t know where it is.” 

“Yet, we know someone who does…”  

She grinned at Ned.  The summer was about to get way more interesting.  

***

“Oh my god, what did you do?” 

A week later, after they had already begun planning the road trip to see Peter, MJ got a call from Ned’s mom that he had been in the hospital.  He was fine, thankfully, but when she arrived at his hospital room, Ned was lying in bed, his leg in the air, entirely in a cast. So much for road trip plans.  

“I broke my leg in about four places,” Ned examined his cast, entirely too happy. MJ couldn’t tell if it was the painkillers Ned was probably on or just his usual disposition.  

“How’d it happen?” 

“So, my brothers and I decided to be Spider-Man and…” 

“Stop,” MJ said, holding up a hand.  “Pretty sure I get the picture.” She let out a sigh as she sat on the end of the bed.  “You know for someone so smart, you sure are dumb sometimes. You’re sixteen and you’re still playing superheroes?” 

“Are you kidding me?” Ned’s eyes grew wide.  “You’re never too old to play superheroes!” 

MJ folded her arms.  “So does this mean no road trip to see Peter?” 

Ned frowned.  “The doctors said it would heal in six to eight weeks.” 

“God…” 

“You should still go.” 

_ What? _ That was unexpected.  Why would Ned think she would want to go see Peter on her own? Did she want to see Peter on her own? Maybe… 

“I mean, I have his birthday present ready and everything.” 

“So, now I’m you’re glorified delivery girl?”

“Of course not!” 

She rolled her eyes.  “You know you could just mail it to him.” 

“Yeah, but I still don’t know the address, so you’ll have to visit Pete’s Aunt anyway,” Ned said. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he could use the company.  And you would get to see The Avengers complex! Do you realize how freakin’ cool that would be?  _ The Avengers _ , MJ!  Iron Man could be there!”

“Or Spider-Man!” she teased, waiting eagerly for his reaction.  “He’s your favorite right? Clearly, cause you broke your leg pretending to be him.  And you and Peter watch those YouTube videos all the time.”

Ned worked his jaw nervously.  “Uh, I mean, he’s cool. But as cool as The Vision? Pete says he can walk through walls.  That is way cooler than walking up them. Or, oh oh, The Hulk! He could, like, smash something for you.” 

“I’m perfectly capable of doing my own smashing, thank you.” 

Ned gave a shrug.  “Okay, Captain America?” 

Ned was trying to deflect, MJ could sense it.   She shrugged. “Captain America’s a war criminal at the moment so doubtful.  But back to Spider-Man. Have either of you considered a career in journalism? Because clearly you want to document that journey with the amount of time you guys follow Spider-Man around.   Do you think Spider-Man has an official spokesperson? Maybe you could get him to sign your cast.” 

“Well, maybe you can ask him for me when you go visit Peter,” Ned poked at her with his good foot.  “Please, MJ, and then you can give him my present -- and maybe do a video to send back to me while I’m healing.  Please, please, please…”

She could have easily said no and just walked out of the room.  She bit her lip. No, this was a dumb idea. She couldn’t just walk up to an Avengers’ complex.  And she definitely wasn’t going to be Ned Leeds’s errand girl. But something about Ned’s earnestness… and maybe something more about seeing Peter…

“I want gas money.” 

“Done.” 

“And you have to do whatever I ask for a week when that cast comes off.” 

“That could be arranged.” 

God, what was she getting herself into. “Okay fine, I’ll go see Peter for you.” 

“Yay!” Ned pulled on MJ to give him a hug.  She resisted only slightly but then gave in.  Ned did give pretty good hugs. 

“Alright, so what did you get Peter?”

***

“I just think it’s so sweet that you want to visit Peter on his birthday,” May Parker set a plate of cookies down in front of MJ, and nudged towards her until she picked one up and nibbled on it.  MJ had never been inside Peter’s apartment before. She didn’t know why she expected it to be like the house of an 80-year-old. And despite Ms. Parker’s need to feed her treats, she seemed like your average guardian.  Mostly. 

MJ figured she would have to do a little convincing to get an address out of Ms. Parker, but she was more than willing to share all the details of Peter’s location.   It was almost too easy but MJ wasn’t going to question it. 

“Well, Ned was going to come, too, and then he broke his leg.  You know how he is.” 

Ms. Parker nodded.  “Yeah, I caught he and Peter in an abandoned warehouse once - they almost broke their necks climbing around in there.” 

“Yeah, so since he can’t go, I figured I still could.  Besites, while I’m there, I think I could convince Mr. Stark that turning some weapons of mass destruction into other versions of mass destruction isn’t as helpful as he might think.” 

Ms. Parker gave her an odd look.  “Well, I can’t say I’m Mr. Stark’s biggest fan either but, you know, he’s helping Peter.  So, as long as you’re parents are fine with it…”

“My parents are too busy yelling at each other to really care what I’m doing,” MJ said.  

Ms. Parker grabbed one of her hands and gave a sympathetic squeeze.   It was like she cared. MJ wasn’t used to that. 

“I should give you a little gas money and maybe a little extra for something nice.”  She left the table to get her purse off the counter, shuffling through it to find some cash.  “I wish I could take some time off to go see him myself, but I can’t. And who knows what that Tony Stark has him doing up there.”  She paused, as if wanting to say something but refrained. Only frowned. “It’ll be good for him to have someone else looking out for him, you know?  It’s only been a year since my husband died and now Peter is all I have. I’m glad he has friends like you and Ned. Families should grow, not shrink.”  She sat back at the table, and slid a few bills over to MJ, then clasped her hands. 

“Thanks, Ms. Parker,” MJ said.  

“Call me, May,” She gave MJ a warm smile.  “Oh, and if you see Happy Hogan, tell him I said hi.” 

***

The drive up wasn’t too long, only a few hours.  MJ saw Ned early in the morning to get the gift -- and she was off.  It was a pleasant drive through the country, giving her plenty of time to listen to the autobiography of Peggy Carter (read by Peggy Carter).  The day flew by.

By early evening, MJ turned off the highway and followed a few small service roads to a patch of woods.  Unfortunately, May Parker’s directions didn’t go farther beyond the drive The Avengers’ compound was supposed to be on.  The road continued to narrow until it was almost one-way, and wound its way into a thick patch of woods, making it difficult to know exactly where she was. Then eventually, she came too a grinding halt as a large, black gate stood in their way.   She stopped the car a few feet away.

There was something a little eerie about the gate.  Sure, The Avengers weren’t going to advertise their location with billboards or anything -- but why did this place remind her of a location in a Stephen King novel? 

She should have called Peter first to let him know she was coming.  Ned wanted it to be a surprise and, for some reason, she had decided to indulge him.  Why did she do that? Cause there was a part of her that wanted to see Peter’s reaction when he saw her?  God, this was what she got for being dumb. She fished out her cell phone to give him a call. And of course - no service.  Damn. 

She placed a hand on the gate.  Maybe there was a security system in place that would get someone’s attention.  She noticed a couple of security cameras on both ends of the gate but that was about it.  Tony Stark had designed this right? The same guy who designed Stark Tower - where you couldn’t get within five feet without some kind of AI security mauling you down?  

Suddenly, sirens began to blare, and a large flashing light rose out of the ground in front of her.  Before she could step away, a huge net came up from underneath her and swooped her up so that she was caught hanging between two trees.  

“Yeah, of course,” she mumbled as she tried to work her way into a comfortable position.  There had to be an easy way to get out of this, because there was no way she was screaming for help.  

Luckily for her, she didn’t have to ponder too long because someone was indeed home.  

A second later, Spider-Man swept in from the trees.  MJ had only seen him from the videos, and never up close.  He was much cooler than she had anticipated, swinging off a branch to the pole with the flashing light with grace.  And kind of cute. Oh god, did she actually think that? 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry…” Upside-down, Spider-Man climbed down the pole, and flipped open the casing to the security controls.  “This happens all the time. Do you know how many bad guys we’ve caught with this thing? Zero. How many regular people? You are, like, the fifteenth.  A damn bird lands on this thing and it goes off. I’ve been trying to tell Mr. Stark that he’s got to change it so it isn’t so sensitive but I think he thinks it’s funny every time I have to come out here.”

Oh, that voice.  She knew that voice anywhere.  She had expected, but to have confirmation? It left her a little giddy.

A few punched buttons, and the net fell.  Before it hit the ground, though, Spider-Man grabbed it with some webbing, and gently lowered it to the ground.  MJ was surprised to end up out of that onto her own two feet. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Spider-Man helped untangle her from the net.  As soon as he saw who was he let out a noticeable gasp. “Wha-- I mean how did you, I mean…” 

“Hey, Peter,” MJ said casually.  “Nice net. Is that how you greet all your friends?"

“What? No, I’m, uh, I’m not Peter…” His voice dropped.  “I’m Spider-Man.” 

MJ gave him a wicked smile.  She could totally picture his panicked face underneath the mask.  “Sure, you’re not.” 

“God, I’m gonna get in so much trouble for this.”  With a quick thwip-thwip both security cameras were webbed, and he pushed her back into the trees.  “What are you doing here?” 

“Didn’t think you wanted to spend your birthday alone,” MJ said.  “I realize I’m not the amazing Ned Leeds but I did bring presents.  Oh wait, you’re not Peter, so your birthday isn’t actually tomorrow.  Guess I’ll eat those cupcakes Peter’s Aunt May made myself. She even put red and blue sprinkles on them.  Cause, you know, they’re Peter’s favorite colors.” 

“Red and blue aren’t my favorite… shit.”  He slumped his shoulders in resignation as MJ tapped the spider in the middle of the blue and red suit.  He’d been caught. Finally, he pulled off his mask and MJ’s eyes grew wide with delight as she realized how right she was.  “Okay, fine. It’s me, Peter. I’m Spider-Man.” 


End file.
